Conquered: She Who Dares Book Two (14 page)

“You’re going after Wyatt Industries?” He snaps.

“Yes, I’m going after Wyatt Industries, and I will have Wyatt Industries.” I say with no hint of doubt. “I’ll buy the shares for fifty percent more than you paid for them. That way, you make money and everyone’s a winner.”

“You think you can just buy off anyone, don’t you Ellis?” He says in a low voice.

“Um, yeah, that’s the benefit of being disgustingly rich.” I throw him an arrogant grin.

A small smile pulls at the corners of his lips. “Now why would you want Wyatt Industries?” He taps his chin with his index finger.

“Call it a favour to a friend.” I mumble.

He smiles. “No, this isn’t about Wyatt. You’re not here because you want my shares. If you wanted Wyatt you could just throw some of that cash of yours around, and buy out a bigger controlling share. This is about Lilly.” He grins.

I clench my jaw. “Trust me when I say that she will drop you as a client. I have more money, so therefore she will represent me. I have Simmons well and truly in my pocket.”

He smiles wide. “But what if she doesn’t? You two aren’t exactly on good terms. From what I hear, she’d love nothing more than to get you out of her life.”

My anger gets the better of me. “Lilly is mine. You stay the fuck away from her.” I keep my voice low, barely containing the anger simmering just beneath the surface. Damn it, I need to rein it in.

“Like Madeleine was mine? You didn’t seem to care.” Madeleine, that was her name. Jesus, it was what….five years ago. The guy hangs on to shit.

I smirk and poke the bear. “She never even told me she was engaged, you know. Not that I’m going to pretend it would have made any difference, but she never even mentioned it.”

He smiles, but I can see the tension around his eyes. “Maybe I’ll ask Lilly out to dinner. Then I’ll fuck her and see what’s so special about her that has the man himself, Theodore Ellis so hung up on her. She must be really fucking good.” I clench my jaw so hard my teeth hurt. “Then when I’m done, I’ll chuck her out like yesterday’s trash.”

I growl and slam my hand down on his desk. I lean forward and get in his face. “You stay the fuck away from her, Hardy, or I swear to god I will fucking ruin you. I will burn your world to the ground.”

He says nothing as he meets my fierce glare. I turn and leave his office before I fucking kill the bastard.

Chapter Ten

Lilly

After my mortifying moment with Cruise I really didn’t expect to see him again, but he called me a few days later and we had coffee, and since then we’ve hung out a few times. He gets me, and as much as I love Molly and George, he doesn’t look at me as though I may have a meltdown at any given moment. We met up for drinks a couple of days ago, and he invited me to his show tonight. His band, Last Soul is playing in one of the bigger bars in Soho tonight. Apparently it’s a good gig with a great vibe. So, in the true spirit of watching a muscled up bad boy fuck me with his voice, I accepted. I’m a sucker for bad boys, and for some reason, unbeknownst to female kind, musicians just scream bad.

Molly, George and I are queuing outside the bar waiting to get in. Molly and I reconciled after our small disagreement. I told her that Theo and I were done, end of conversation. She agreed to let it go. I know she only acts in my best interest. She thought Theo and I were the real deal. Molly is a romantic at heart, despite her current choice of bed buddy, and hoped that true love would conquer all. That’s just a fairy tale though. In real life the prince makes stupid mistakes, and the princess is too emotionally scarred to deal with it. In real life people are weak, and love fails as they do. Few people have the courage required to embrace true love. The fact is, if you’re not willing to fight body and soul for someone, then you don’t deserve them. There are some people who are just not cut out for love. I’m one of them.

I hope that Molly never loses that faith though. TJ still has that faith despite his heartbreaks and his set back’s. I am in awe of it. I know the kind of strength it takes to risk it all so absolutely. It’s a strength I don’t have. It’s a risk I wasn’t prepared to take. When the time comes I want Molly to risk it all, to experience that earth shattering, fire work inducing, soul wrenching love. She deserves that love, because I know she will fight for it in ways that I never can.

I just pray to god she moves on from this shit with Hugo soon. Just fun, she says. She’s been fucking him for over a month now. I’m getting worried. Don’t get me wrong, I like Hugo, but I know just how charming those playboy smiles can be. Molly’s lack of guard may lead her to give her heart to the wrong person. You couldn’t get much more wrong than Hugo. Something tells me it may already be happening. She’s already blinded.

“Jesus, it’s cold out here.” Molly hugs her arms around her body.

George opens his knee length coat, pulling Molly and I close to his body before wrapping the coat across each of our shoulders. George throws off so much body heat. The boy is like a walking bloody radiator.

“Smuggling peanuts, girlies?” George smirks.

I elbow him in the ribs and he laughs. Molly and I decided to go all rock chick/ groupie. We got some of the band t-shirts online. Molly then decided that they needed some ‘jazzing up’ and cut slashes across the front. I’m now wearing the shredded black shirt with the band logo on the front, which shows flashes of my stomach. I’ve got a very short black skirt on and some black suede thigh-high Prada boots, courtesy of Molly raiding the samples at her work. They’re badass. Molly has on a similar outfit, but has braved leather hot pants and knee-high leather boots. Her legs look six foot long in those arse hugging shorts, with her toned thighs on show.

“You should try wearing clothes. It helps.” George continues.

“Oh, shush, let us have our fun and slut it up.” Molly whines. “If there was ever a place to be naked it’s watching a rock band.”

“Or when you’re boning the band.” George eyes me meaningfully with a small smile.

“Nope, no boning here.” I say casually.

“Fuck off Lilly. If you have another ‘crisis of conscience’ I’m going to have to have a conversation with your vagina.” George badgered me non-stop the morning after my Cruise/ Theo disaster. As always I spilled.

“It’s not my vagina that’s the problem.” I huff. He stares me down. “Okay, okay. I may fuck Cruise.” I’m not really sure about the whole Cruise situation. Could we be friends with benefits, like actual friends, not just figurative? I just know that I do not want Theo to be the last person I slept with. I’ve tried everything to make myself feel better, but he’s all I think of. I even dream about him touching me. As much as I love my orgasmic dreams, they’re not healthy and the whole thing is driving me insane. The next step is to try and fuck him out of my head. This is where Cruise comes in.

“May?” Molly asks with a cocked eyebrow.

“Well at the moment I’m saying no, but I’m not stupid. I’ve never heard him sing, but if he can even remotely hold a note, we all know I’ll be climbing that boy like a fucking tree.” They both laugh. What can I say? I love me a man with a voice. What girl doesn’t? If I’m going to fuck anyone, Cruise is a good choice.

“No Lill’s, you just know how to spot a good’n, and Cruise is a good’n. His arse is just so...” He starts making a squeezing gesture with his hands.

“Oh god, really George.” I roll my eyes. He cackles like an old woman.

We’ve reached the front of the queue and a burley looking bouncer is eyeing us all huddled inside George’s coat shuffling along. “Name?” He asks.

“Lilly Parker.” He looks up and flicks his eyes down my partially exposed body in a way that makes my skin crawl. I glare at him and catch Molly rolling her eyes. She has about as much tolerance for perverts as I do.

He doesn’t even check the clipboard in his hand. “Okay.” He steps aside and lets us through. We step through some heavy doors and are met with a long flight of stairs going down. The bar is called Note. It’s known for open mic nights, featuring up and coming bands, and doing intimate performances for London bred bands. It’s underneath one of the big clubs, in the basement. I’ve never actually been in here, but I’ve heard it’s amazing.

“I wouldn’t want to walk down these half cut.” Molly mumbles as our heels click down the steps.

At the bottom of the stairs is another set of doors. We push them open and are hit with a wall of sound. This place must be sound proofed to high heaven.

The place is rammed. The bar is at least four deep with customers waiting to be served. The space is dark, but clever little spots of lighting give it a mysterious feel. The walls are all exposed brick work, with pictures of various bands who have formerly played at Note and gone on to make it big. There are beautiful looking electric guitars hanging on the wall behind the bar, below them are rows of brightly coloured bottles. The bar itself is striped in black and white like piano keys.

The area by the bar is filled with tables with comfortable looking leather chairs dotted around them. Beyond the bar the space opens out to a stage area. Here there are only a few tables dotted around an open floor. It’s nice, but a little bit grungy, as these types of places tend to be.

“This place is awesome.” George says.

I nod. It is just as cool as I’d heard. The place is packed with a wide range of people. I note that most of the women are wearing even less than Molly and I. Not that I give a fuck. If you’ve got it flaunt it and all that good stuff. You can feel the buzz in the air, the crowd hyped for the upcoming performance. My phone buzzes with a text.

It’s from Cruise.
Come out the back when you get here. Phil knows you’re coming. X.

I scan the room and spot a small door next to the stage. “Cruise said we can go out back.”

“I think I’m going to stay out here. I’ve just seen someone I know.” George has a small smile on his face, which means whoever he’s seen is a prospective for the night.

I shrug and grab Molly’s hand, dragging her across the busy bar. A guy stands outside the door looking like a brick shit house.

“Hi.” I say when we reach him. “Are you Phil?” He smiles and goes from badass to likeable immediately.

“That’s me.”

“Cruise said to go back. My name’s Lilly.”

He smiles wider. “Sure thing doll.” He punches in a code on the door and pushes it open. We step into a small corridor with one door at the end. There’s music blaring from the room, not the same music that’s playing in the bar. This is hard core rock. My music tastes are quite varied, so I don’t mind. I turn to Molly who has her face scrunched up. I laugh.

“Is this the shit we have to listen to?” She asks.

I shrug. “I’ve never heard them. I don’t know.”

“Well, can I be all rock chick without the actual rock?” She asks. I laugh. She flicks her long blonde hair over her shoulder. It falls in loose golden waves down her back giving her a certain innocence. Her ice blue eyes are rimmed in heavy kohl, giving her an eerie but dramatic look. There is not a guy walking who wouldn’t notice her. Add into the equation those bloody legs, and the poor bastards are going to be crawling.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She whispers as we approach the door.

“Because you look hot.”

“Babe.” She smiles and eyes me up and down. “I totally would.”

I laugh as I tentatively push the door open. The music blares louder. The room is small, with two big sofas in the middle. There are guitars leant against the wall. Sat on the sofas are four guys and a few women. I spot Cruise with his back to us, a guitar on his lap, strumming away. The woman sat next to him paws at his arm, but he seems to be pre-occupied with his instrument.

One of the guys has a woman on his lap sucking his neck. He has dark hair, and sharp features. Tattoos wind over his arms and creep out from under his shirt over his neck. His eyes flick up to the door just as he takes a drag of his cigarette. His dark eyes meet mine for a fleeting second and go wide before he starts to cough violently.

“Fuck. Me.” He croaks out. Now every eye in the room turns our way. Molly tries to hide slightly behind me. There are a couple of whistles, but other than that an uncomfortable silence. Okaaaay. They guys look like they want to eat us alive, and the women look like they want to stab us. I had no idea their band was big enough for groupies, but then again, die hard groupies will attach themselves to any man with a guitar. Like I said, some women are just a sucker for a musician.

“Lilly. You came.” Cruise drawls in that accent that has my skin prickling.

“His voice makes me think of filthy things.” Molly whispers. I try not to laugh. It’s true.

“Imagine him singing.” I whisper back.

“I may need a change of underwear.” At that I do laugh.

Cruise tilts his head questioningly as he stands and walks toward us. “Hey Cruise.” Molly steps out from behind me and hugs him. I hear someone behind him groan. She has to stand on tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. He closes his big arms around her tiny waist. Cruise used to hang out with us at the clubs when we were sleeping together. Usually I keep my fuck buddies just for sex, but there’s something about Cruise. He’s just so easy to be around. I never felt constricted by him, or like he was just waiting to trap me in a relationship. Believe me, there are far too many men who don’t know a good thing when it smacks them in the face. They always try and push for more. Cruise doesn’t. I can kind of see why now. This lifestyle fits with what we had, fun, easy, non-committal. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve come to consider him a friend, and that’s not something I say about any of my former fucks. As such, it means he’s friendly with Mole and George too.

“Lilly.” His eyes skim down my body and he smiles. “Becoming a groupie now?” He points at my shirt.

I shrug. “When in Rome.” He scoops me up in a huge hug, lifting me off the ground.

“It’s good to see you.” He murmurs into my hair.

“Thanks for inviting us.” He puts me down and turns to face the rest of the guys who I assume are his band.